Satheesan seeks vigilance inquiry into IFTAS deal

Congress legislator V.D. Satheesan on Monday told the Assembly that the government’s suspicious move to award a ₹168 crore co-operative banking sector related IT solutions contract to a private firm with “no technical expertise or credentials” had warranted an urgent vigilance inquiry.

Mr. Satheesan expressed surprise that Minister for Cooperation Kadakampally Surendran was not present in the House to answer the charges he had raised against the firm, Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS).

When the Opposition spotlighted the State’s apparent haste to favour the firm, the government put up a weak defence by incorrectly claiming the Reserve Bank of India owned IFTAS.

The company, incorporated in 2015, had RBI officials on the board only as goodwill directors. The RBI did not own the firm. IFTAS was no subsidiary of RBI, Mr. Satheesan said.

It had no experience in providing banking solutions. IFTAS had supplied cash counting machines, biometric security sensors and surveillance cameras to some scheduled banks by sourcing those devices from a third party.

₹300 crore deal

The government was wooing the same firm to provide banking solution modules to 1,500 primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS). IFTAS stood to earn a whopping ₹300 crore in service and annual maintenance charges in the next three years if it bagged the deal.

IFTAS was no original equipment manufacturer. Its software solution implemented in PACS in Idukki and Wayanad districts was found to be faulty. Two nascent firms had supplied the software to IFTAS at a low rate. The annual maintenance was done by a third firm, Mr. Satheesan said.

IFTAS, on its own, had no solution to offer to PACS. “It does not know the ABC of programming,” he said.

The government had batted for the implementation of the proposed IT solution in PACS through IFTAS though two bureaucratic committees had advised the scheme would become redundant with the formation of the integrated Kerala Bank.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said a committee of secretaries was examining the points raised by the Opposition. Mr. Kadakampally would answer the Opposition’s charges on Tuesday.